Longmont truck driver killed in Oklahoma crash

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fatal crash involving a tractor trailer and another vehicle that was caused by a high-speed chase outside of Quapaw, Okla.
(
Gary Crow
)

A Longmont truck driver was killed Wednesday in a crash in Oklahoma that stemmed from a police chase following a bank robbery, according to law-enforcement officials there.

James Carl Wivell, 48, was driving north on U.S. Highway 69 near Quapaw, Okla., at about 10:35 a.m. when his 2008 International tractor trailer was struck by a 2010 Mazda being driven by a Tulsa man who is suspected of attempting to rob a bank in Miami, Okla., which is about 10 miles southwest of Quapaw.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported Wivell as being from Longmont, but the Times-Call could not verify a local address Thursday.

Harry Francis Dishmon, 50, is accused of passing a note asking for money to a bank teller in Miami, according to the Miami News Record. He reportedly did not display a weapon, and left without taking any money, according to the newspaper.

Dishmon fled the bank in the Mazda. Near Quapaw, that city's police chief saw him driving about 110 mph on U.S. 69, the News Record reported.

Three miles north of Quapaw, just north of 30 Road, Dishmon tried to pass Wivell's truck, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. Because a southbound vehicle was approaching, Dishmon swerved back into the northbound lane, striking the trailer's driver's side.

The Mazda spun around several times and struck a 1998 Saturn SL2 that had been abandoned on the shoulder of the highway, according to the Highway Patrol.

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Wivell's truck and trailer rolled onto its driver's side, slid across the highway and hit the guardrail, the Highway Patrol reported.

Wivell was pinned for 15 minutes, and died at the scene from massive injuries to his head and body, according to the Highway Patrol.

Dishmon was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in the course of an attempted first-degree robbery and denied bond, the Miami News Record reported.

The tractor trailer's Department of Transportation registration is connected with Direct Line Transport, a Greenwood Village company. A call to the company was not returned.

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